I wonder what he’s thinking now, but I can guess that Colin Kaepernick might be a little stunned and very amazed by all of this, which started more than a year ago, when he decided that he wouldn’t be standing for the national anthem for the 2016 season.

And that’s part of the subtle power and true significance of this: Kaepernick did not and could not know the future back then.

He just stepped into the wild unknown because his conscience would allow nothing else, whether the NFL and America was ready for it or not. We still don’t really know the answer to that last part.

With Kaepernick’s job, reputation and maybe even his life on the line. Was it brave? Yes. Was it a little naive? No question, if you remember the first days of this. Was it necessary? You can be the judge, after all that we’ve seen in the last year, and maybe especially the last two days.